Initial Video Outline:

RIP exercise #7 had outlined my goals and initial goals before animating my video. 

For the majority of my outline, I remained consistent with my initial goal. (I discuss this below) However, one main aspect that changed was that my interpretation of Jack's answers went from more traditional western to more modern neo-western. As a result, the audience ended up learning more about neo-western conventions.

My Goal

I wanted to do a question and answer video that had questions that would provide enough information for the audience to induce western culture. These videos are common among the YouTube community, where the influencer sits down in front of a camera- as if to be a one-on-one conversation- and answer a thread of questions they receive through viewers. But a problem I encountered with this medium was that, normally the individual simply sits down and answers questions- reading questions off their phone. However, since this was an animation- simply putting an avatar with dialogue would be a mundane video. Therefore, I decided to incorporate many drawing and some animations to make it more interactive with their dialogue. I tried my best to make my animations more fluid. However, this was an extremely demanding task. However, to reach this criteria, I spent about three weeks adjusting, producing, and revising for my final animation. I invested time between classes and made sure to take advantage of available time to work on my animation. Although I did not draw all my work frame by frame, I made sure to make sure my drawings weren't still pictures and remain interesting. 

 As stated in my proposal, deciding on what my plans on my RIP project had been a challenge. Because I had recently purchased a drawing tablet, I had already intended on incorporating my own digitalized art. This was particularly risky in the aspect that I was unfamiliar with both my tablet which was instrumental for the visual elements in my project and the program Final Cut Pro X, an video editing program. Taking on an animation of my own art was a gamble. I had previous experience with video editing using the program Sony Vegas from when I was younger; but to be frank, I was definitely working out of my comfort zone. Despite this, I was motivated enough to pursue this project. I decided to use prior knowledge and familiarize myself with my instruments for this project by watching available tutorials on youtube and practice using my tablet (adjusting brush thickness, sketching) 

Programs used: 

Final Cut Pro & Adobe Photoshop

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Instruments used:

Intuos Art tablet

This is what Final Cut Pro looks like with all my images and audio inputed to create the animation.

As you can see, this project required alot of drawing and files to create a cohesive video. I regret naming my drawings on a number system, it hindered the speed of editing because I had to look for the file individually. 

Designing Jack Frost 

Coming up with Jack's design took many attempts and I feared I was running out of creativity, because I was trying to find a balance in a visually entertaining character and something I could consistent with. To be honest, throughout this whole animation, I found it difficult to stay with a consistent art style. Therefore, I relied on a consistent avatar to maintain Jack. I made sure he had a solid design that would be simple and recognizable enough. Additionally, I tried my best to make Jack's design approachable. Here are some of the various attempts I made on Jack. I used this as reference. 

These are some of the many proposed Jack's I initially designed. I did not save most of them. 

 This is the final avatar of Jack I decided to use.

Overall

This was probably my favorite frame from the animation. 

Although the quality of the video would have been much more better if I had more experience with the items I used for this project, I feel extremely satisfied with my end result. This contrasts with my beginning feelings when I received feedback from my peers and Professor Keeler. As a result, I had hesitated presenting my video in class. However, the feedback was much more positive than predicted. One challenge I had with making my video was choosing a video that was well suited for the atmosphere of my video. I wanted to incorporate something that provided a western atmosphere yet not intense that it was distracting from the video. I found that many western soundtracks suggested tension for a shootout or were far too pessimistic; I also found difficulty on deciding whether to incorporate the same soundtrack throughout the video or changing it up instead of being consistent. I decided to the latter. The process of choosing audio took much longer than one would actually assume.  

To be honest, while creating this project- I often felt like losing my patience with the creative process and was frustrated with technical issues. This video is, by means, not at all how I visualized it to be. Yet, I believe I utilized the best of my resources (peer review, feedback from Professor Keeler, suggestions from friends, online tutorials, research, and more) to construct, what I consider, a successful project.